Oakland Athletics' Michael Taylor walks back to the dugout after hitting an infield pop up in the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Cleveland Indians Wednesday, March. 2, 2011 in Phoenix Ariz. The Athletics defeated the Indians 4-3.
Ran on: 03-04-2011
Michael Taylor wants to make a big impression this spring, but he has a more basic goal.

At times last year, former Stanford outfielder Michael Taylor didn't want to come to the ballpark.

Baseball was hard for Taylor. He arrived at a new organization after a high-profile deal - he went from the Phillies to the Blue Jays in the Roy Halladay trade in December 2009, then came to the A's in exchange for Brett Wallace. He wanted to make a good impression, but he struggled much of the first half at Triple-A Sacramento, hitting under .240. He didn't get a call-up in September.

This spring, he'd like to turn in some nice numbers, and he hit a three-run homer earlier in the week, but he has a more basic goal. "I want to enjoy every day," Taylor said. "Enjoy the time, enjoy the work."

You'd think that if anything, that might be more difficult this spring. After all, the A's acquired two starting outfielders during the offseason, David DeJesus and Josh Willingham, and barring injuries, the team is set with outfielders for the regular season. Taylor, at the age of 25, is looking at another full year at Triple-A.

"It's not frustrating," Taylor said. "I just know it will make the job of making the team more difficult, but it's a business. They're going to put the team in a position to win, and they should. Eventually, I should get an opportunity."

Taylor spent an enormous time tinkering with his swing last year, trying to find answers. He's got a greater degree of difficulty than a player with a short, compact swing, because he is tall (6-foot-5) with long arms.

"It's a constant battle for a big guy to control leverage because the bat head is further away from the strike zone and it's harder to fine-tune everything," Taylor said. "I'm never going to have a swing like David Eckstein, but you can make a long swing work for you. It's about hitting the ball on the barrel."

That is the biggest thing Taylor took away from hitting sessions with new Dodgers manager Don Mattingly during the Arizona Fall League. Mattingly ran the league's Phoenix team, and he discovered, essentially, a little hitch in Taylor's swing.

"I'm trying to have everything be real fluid, and when attacking, not pause to take a good look," Taylor said. "You do all the work early, then you either swing or you don't swing. Less decision-making, one fluid movement instead of a pause."

The results were fairly obvious.

"I saw Michael hit a ball in Fall League, an opposite-field home run that looked like a left-handed pull hitter," A's director of player development Keith Lieppman said. "He's beginning to understand the mechanics of his swing better, he's taken it apart and put it back together, and he's learned to really pull his hands through the ball inside. You think about how Tiger Woods has reinvented his swing so many times. That work pays off."

The A's know what Taylor went through last year, and they liked how he responded.

"Just looking at the effort he put in, and the frustration and the failure - and he was still open-minded, willing to look at every idea," Lieppman said. "He never lost hope and he never stopped working.

"The biggest thing is how people respond when things aren't going the way they want. You learn a lot about players by how they deal with failure, and Michael never showed signs of quitting, even if he felt like it. He put on his game face and he played hard."